The present invention relates to processing roughage, creating a ration, and delivering it to livestock.
In modern agriculture practice, it is considered advantageous to process roughage to be fed to livestock. It is also considered advantageous to use more than one feed course to create a ration to provide the animals"" proper nutritional requirements. It is further necessary to deliver the ration to the animals.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,221,266 to Roach (1939); U.S. Pat. No. 2,685,900 to Cross (1954); 2,941,505 to Middlen (1960); U.S. Pat. No. 3,035,729 to Soares et al (1962); U.S. Pat. No. 3,379,417 to Luscombe (1968); and U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,674 to Meitl (1976) all provide various means of processing only one type of roughage and delivering it to livestock, but they do not create a ration.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,168,291 to Knoedler et al (1965); U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,108 to Grau (1965); U.S. Pat. No. 3,265,227 to Vratil et al (1966); U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,781 to Seymour (1985); U.S. Pat. No. 4,907,538 to Helmle et al (1990); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,188 to Erickson (1998) all employ various methods of blending a grain ration and delivering it to livestock. They, however, do not process it, and they will not work on large bales of roughage.
U.S. Pat. No.3,254,878 to Lorenzen (1966) employs a method to process and deliver a grain ration to livestock. However, it will not work on large bales of roughage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,537 to Heide (1984) employs a method of processing, blending, and delivering a silage and grain ration, but it will not work on large bales of roughage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,626,298 to Arnoldy (1997) does process large bales of roughage, but does not create a ration or delivering it to livestock.
The present invention provides a machine and method of processing large bales of roughage while simultaneously creating a ration and immediately delivering the ration to livestock ready for consumption.
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the invention are:
(a) to provide a machine to process large bales of hay or roughage;
(b) to provide a machine that creates a ration of varying ratios from two different types of roughage;
(c) to provide a machine that immediately delivers a roughage ration to livestock ready for consumption;
(d) to provide a machine which blends cheaper, lower quality feed material with higher quality feed material to create a more effective and economical ration;
(e) to provide one machine which performs the functions that previously required two or more machines;
(f) to provide a machine to reduce the amount of time and labor required to process large bales of roughage, create a ration, and deliver the ration to livestock.
Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.